7/20 Reactions to "Butoh & Beyond"
7/20 Brief thoughts and reactions to “Butoh and Beyond”, BeBe Theatre, Asheville (curated by Julie Becton Gillum):
Six different (very different) butoh pieces, many performers; interesting how I reacted to each of them, very subjectively categorizing them as to who seemed to be able to “do it” and who didn’t (me not even really knowing what “it” means in terms of technique, only in terms of how they reached me or didn’t). Actually, I think “it” means being totally present and totally exposed. I think Julie is almost always that way when she performs: somehow, she creates an open image by appearing to be totally possessed by the character; yet “character” is the wrong word. But it’s no longer Julie, either. But whatever it is, it is so exposed and available that it sucks me right in even when I am repelled by the grotesquerie.
I keep thinking of Grotowski (early) talking about the actor as sacrificial victim, choosing to undergo something for us (not the same as performing for us). Butoh is really pure Artaud, I think...
Not everyone seems to be able to do that, and some of the performers weren’t able or chose not to risk it all. They were “representing” something rather than inhabiting it. They were playing it safe (even though I’m sure they wouldn’t agree). Probably what I would do if I were to try butoh. Though maybe it has everything to do with training.
Two other performers seemed to be at Julie’s level, though I responded differently to each of them. One seemed to me to be doing it all, and I was drawn in to a degree, but most of the time I found myself watching him go through something without caring so much. I admired what he was doing but was uninvolved. In the end, it seemed masturbatory.
The other performer really seemed to have the same “transparent” quality. Even lightning fast changes of expression were authentic, were really reflections (not representations) of something she was undergoing. Though her piece seemed to contain butoh clichés (or conventions, I guess you’d say), it worked for me.
Then there was one other performer who upset all my neat theories. When she began, I thought she was extremely representational, playing characters, unauthentic, dancey even (she played against projections of Katrina victims, lots of very strong images). However, while images of New Orleans alternated with old-fashioned stills of black stereotypes from old films (I think), she blacked her face--she was African-American--and proceded to perform an amazingly disturbing parody of white stereotypes of black people (minstrelsy) which included hip-hop and very eroticized images. The funny thing was, it seemed to me to be absolutely authentic, maybe because it was performed with such gleeful rage, and her eyes we glued to her white audience. I felt absolutly complicit in the performance, absolutely accused. Incredible.
I found these performances fascinating and provocative (still not tired of butoh, I guess), in part because they seemed to get right at the question of what is going on in performance. Who is the performer and what do I want/expect of her/him? What is the relationship between performer and character? Between performer and spectator? What is communicated? Where does meaning lie? Why does it succeed and why does it fail? How can something actual be made to happen in a performance situation?
Six different (very different) butoh pieces, many performers; interesting how I reacted to each of them, very subjectively categorizing them as to who seemed to be able to “do it” and who didn’t (me not even really knowing what “it” means in terms of technique, only in terms of how they reached me or didn’t). Actually, I think “it” means being totally present and totally exposed. I think Julie is almost always that way when she performs: somehow, she creates an open image by appearing to be totally possessed by the character; yet “character” is the wrong word. But it’s no longer Julie, either. But whatever it is, it is so exposed and available that it sucks me right in even when I am repelled by the grotesquerie.
I keep thinking of Grotowski (early) talking about the actor as sacrificial victim, choosing to undergo something for us (not the same as performing for us). Butoh is really pure Artaud, I think...
Not everyone seems to be able to do that, and some of the performers weren’t able or chose not to risk it all. They were “representing” something rather than inhabiting it. They were playing it safe (even though I’m sure they wouldn’t agree). Probably what I would do if I were to try butoh. Though maybe it has everything to do with training.
Two other performers seemed to be at Julie’s level, though I responded differently to each of them. One seemed to me to be doing it all, and I was drawn in to a degree, but most of the time I found myself watching him go through something without caring so much. I admired what he was doing but was uninvolved. In the end, it seemed masturbatory.
The other performer really seemed to have the same “transparent” quality. Even lightning fast changes of expression were authentic, were really reflections (not representations) of something she was undergoing. Though her piece seemed to contain butoh clichés (or conventions, I guess you’d say), it worked for me.
Then there was one other performer who upset all my neat theories. When she began, I thought she was extremely representational, playing characters, unauthentic, dancey even (she played against projections of Katrina victims, lots of very strong images). However, while images of New Orleans alternated with old-fashioned stills of black stereotypes from old films (I think), she blacked her face--she was African-American--and proceded to perform an amazingly disturbing parody of white stereotypes of black people (minstrelsy) which included hip-hop and very eroticized images. The funny thing was, it seemed to me to be absolutely authentic, maybe because it was performed with such gleeful rage, and her eyes we glued to her white audience. I felt absolutly complicit in the performance, absolutely accused. Incredible.
I found these performances fascinating and provocative (still not tired of butoh, I guess), in part because they seemed to get right at the question of what is going on in performance. Who is the performer and what do I want/expect of her/him? What is the relationship between performer and character? Between performer and spectator? What is communicated? Where does meaning lie? Why does it succeed and why does it fail? How can something actual be made to happen in a performance situation?
posted by Graham at 8:37 PM
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